When you read this it's a month ago that I wrote this. I love it, how WordPress keeps on evolving. So it was more than a month ago that I attended the BeVolunteer General Assembly at the LinuxHotel in Essen. It was very inspiring, in the middle of the Ruhrgebiet and nevertheless extremely green and tranquil. And my fellow participants were amazing.
A week before I had left Amsterdam. To hitchhike to Avignon, 1050 km away, to meet up with Elsa and amylin (on the occasion of her birthday). I had planned to spend the night in my tent, that I had recently bought before going to the Berlin Beach Camp. Unfortunately I wasn't able to use it there, because of the physical signs of stress. (Instead I spent the weekend in an extremely luxurious apartment.) My hope however was to be in Luxembourg before sunset and hitch a ride with a car going down South.
As it usually goes, time flies and before you know it's past 15:00 and you still have to head to a good hitchhiking spot. I prepared my sign "Belgie" in the bus, and because that it only took me three minutes to be picked up by a car driving to Antwerpen. Hitching through Belgium took a bit more effort (waiting times up to 30 minutes), but at some desolate gas station (on the highway) I saw a Dutch car and I asked a Dutch looking guy if I could go with him to Luxembourg. So I made it before 22:00 to the super gas station in Luxembourg, right before the French border.
After 30 minutes a car stopped, asking me about my destination. "Avignon." "T'as de la chance." I got in the car and was a bit surprised by the unlit dashboard. The Moroccan driver started driving and I was a bit more surprised. By the sudden changes of speed and the not so steady directions. During our conversation Aziz had asked if I had my driving license. Inshallah, after an hour and a half the driver stopped to pass the wheel onto me. After 5 hours of driving I made it to Avignon in less than 14 hours.